Taze
by Sphynx Lynx
Summary: When Taze escaped from Manticore with her family, she never expected to become such a precious commodity. Pg13 to be safe; rating for language.
1. Wisconsin

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, let alone the characters from Dark Angel. I do own Taze and the other escapees though. Just please don't sue me. Thanx.  
  
Taze. Mel. Tenna. Zoe. Luna. Ressa. Hawk. Kirk. Colby. Ryen. Brock.  
  
They all walked in a group on the road. It was a dark night, without a moon to light the way. No cars were driving down the country highway. No one was in sight.  
  
Suddenly in the distance, a light appeared. It belonged to a car, which was speeding down their road.  
  
"He's right on time." Said Hawk.  
  
"I'm actually surprised." Snarked Taze. "He's never on time."  
  
The blue mini-van pulled over on the side of the road. The teenager driving it was beaming.  
  
"Miss me?" he said.  
  
"You know we did, Roz. " answered Luna. "But we missed the transportation even more, though."  
  
"Ok, everyone. Load in and head out." ordered Hawk.  
  
At that, all eleven teens loaded into the car and sped off into the darkness.  
  
******  
  
Zoe looked around the vehicle. After six hours on the road, five of the passengers had fallen asleep. Ryen had taken the wheel, and now she was in charge of the mapping.  
  
"Ok, Ryen. Look for an exit 54."  
  
"Are you sure it's 54? We can't lose our entire objective on another one of your screw ups." Ryan said, sarcastically.  
  
She stared out the window. He just couldn't let things go.  
  
"Hey Tenna, I think Ryen would rather have you be the copilot. Take the map." Zoe said, not really caring.  
  
"Ok. Whatever." Answered Tenna.  
  
Zoe just continued her gaze out the window, not even realizing that she fell asleep. She woke up two hours later when the car stopped. She lifted her head and brushed the red hair out of her eyes. They were at another gas station, somewhere outside of Milwaukee. Everyone else had left the car to get drinks from the store. Zoe tied her hair back into a ponytail, put on her jacket, and slid on her sunglasses before leaving the car.  
  
Once inside the store, Zoe found Roz at the pop fountain. She walked over to him and joined him in filling a cup.  
  
"Are you ok?" asked Roz, noticing Zoe's shaky attitude.  
  
"I'm just thinking... about Ryen and how mad he is at me. I mean, still. After all of this time, even after the escape. He still hates me."  
  
"He's just thinking of how close Jade was to making it out alive."  
  
Zoe turned to him, with her sunglasses off and tears in her eyes.  
  
"I just wanted to get out so bad. Jade was right there with me. I never thought that she, or anyone, would fail to make it out alive. I just couldn't stay there another day, we needed freedom." Zoe finished and sped away to pay for her drink and then she left the store for the car.  
  
When she got outside, Ryen tapped her on the shoulder.  
  
"What?" she really didn't want to talk with Ryen.  
  
"Zoe, I'm leaving. I can't go on, knowing at any time my emotions could come over me. I could really hurt you, and I know that would cause too much harm to all of us." He paused and looked at her. "Zoe, I'm doing this for everyone."  
  
Zoe just sat there; she couldn't believe what had happened within the last week. Ryen just stood there, refusing to move.  
  
"Zoe," he said softly. "just go. You need to make sure the rest make it out there." 


	2. Zoe

Zoe  
  
Zoe Ashton woke with a start. For five months she had been having the same dream about the day Ryen left them in Wisconsin, walking away from that BP in the middle of the day. She still felt the guilt she had at losing another sibling.  
  
She rose out of bed and into the kitchen of her small apartment. She made some tea and sat down in a big chair in the living room. Glancing at the clock she realized that it was already ten in the morning. She had a lot to do. Quickly gulping down her tea, she left the mug in the sink in the kitchen and went to take a shower. Afterwards, she quickly dressed in a knee-length black plaid kilt and a black sweater, along with her winter boots. She grabbed her backpack and left her home for the store. Once she got down the stairs and out the door of her building, she only needed to walk about ten steps to Brock's store.  
  
"Hey! Zoe!" Brock said, surprised to see her there. He hadn't seen his big sister in several weeks.  
  
"Hey Brock. I was wondering if you had a computer part for me, since mine totally blew during the last snowstorm. I think I need a new modem, and a fast one." She didn't have any time for chitchat today.  
  
"Gee, Zoe. I've been pretty busy lately." His head was bent over a memory chip, picking at it with a pair of tweezers. His blond hair was falling into his eyes. Suddenly he picked his head up and smiled.  
  
"But I think I just got a large shipment of parts in. If you're willing to find what you're looking for yourself, then you could save some time by not having to wait on me."  
  
"Thanks, Brock."  
  
Brock did a little black market business. His shop was actually a general store, but in his storage room was where all of the computer components were stored. Zoe spent a mere ten minutes seeking out the perfect part and then paid him for it. They said their goodbyes and she bolted out the door and back up to her apartment.  
  
Back at her apartment, Zoe installed the modem. Just as she was about to connect to the internet, she got a call.  
  
"Yo."  
  
"Hey, Zoe." It was Luna.  
  
"Luna..."  
  
"I know you're busy, Z, but I just wanted to call and say that Mel, Ressa, and I won't be up to see you today as planned. We gotta work overtime... and it's just a bitch around here with this damn labor shortage."  
  
Zoe managed a smile. "It's ok, Luna, I totally understand. We'll just have to reschedule."  
  
"Ok... well I gotta run. Talk to ya later."  
  
Zoe sighed and hung up. It was nice to see that she wasn't the only busy one. So that left Roz, Hawk, Kirk, Colby, Brock, Tenna, and Taze. She knew that at least one more would have to cancel before tonight. She didn't hold that against them, though. She had to cancel on them many times before. She got logged onto the network and started working. She was a real estate agent, but the demand for housing was low so she also did a little work on the side to make ends meet.  
  
She was a hacker. Not a bad hacker, but a hacker that checks for simple holes in systems of top websites. Of course, she and her brothers and sisters could break into any online database or website they wanted to. Back at Manticore they had practiced their skills on the Department of Defense online databases. Within 2 minutes they could get in, get out and get on their way with the info needed.  
  
They could and would still hack into almost any system or site. The only online source that she refused to hack was Manticore. Hawk had once, but that was only to delete the records of Jade so they couldn't clone her. Since Manticore did automatic traces on all who access the site, Hawk got very close to getting shipped back. Zoe shivered at the thought.  
  
She leaned back at slid the glasses off of her face. There were so many experiments. When the X-6's were created, they were all flawed in one way or another, but it wasn't until after six years of constant training that the problems began to show themselves. Most had bad eyesight, like Zoe. But some were ailed with constant migraines and seizures. It hadn't mattered to Manticore; a chimera with any weakness was unsuitable. In Wyoming they X-6's were infected with a deadly virus. At the base in Michigan were Zoe lived, they were used for experiments to see what had gone wrong in their DNA. The few X-5's at their base were delighted to watch the torture of her siblings, and sometimes were even allowed to join in on the fun. She remembered how they had tried to heal Luke's headaches by poking around his brain and exposing him to radiation. He had gotten many tumors and his brain bled until he died, the scientists were there recording every second of his demise. When they chose  
Jade to become the focus of their next experiment Zoe couldn't stand to stay. Jade was the sweet little sister, after all. Zoe would have done anything to keep her alive. But she had failed and she failed horribly.  
  
******  
  
Zoe had managed to fall asleep at her keyboard. The phone rings awakened her.  
  
"Yo."  
  
"Zoe, hey it's Taze."  
  
"Hey Taze."  
  
"Listen I just wanted to know if you'd like me to stop and get some deli sandwiches for dinner. I need to go to the store anyway."  
  
"Yeah, that would be good. You only need to pick up eight. Mel, Luna, and Ressa canceled."  
  
"Ok, I got it. See ya in an hour."  
  
"Great, bye."  
  
She had been asleep way too long. It was already dark outside, and there was only an hour to go before her siblings came over. They were planning on breaking into the computer systems of a company in California. Hawk claimed that it was still producing tools for Manticore, so it was their job to eliminate the system. Zoe shut down her computer and began to walk away, but stopped when she heard a beeping noise. She turned around and walked to the back of her desktop and looked around. There she saw a little black box taped to the fan of her computer. She already knew what it was, already knew it was too late.  
  
She gulped as the box exploded, filling the room with fire.  
  
Brock was just getting ready to close down the shop when the phone rang.  
  
"Hey, Sixes Store. How can I help you?"  
  
"Brock, it's Colby. Have you seen Zoe lately?"  
  
"No, why?"  
  
"She didn't look very good when I saw her last Monday. I wonder if she's up to the hack tonight."  
  
"You know that Zoe would always be up for a hack." He paused. Suddenly, the hair on the back of his neck began to prick up. Something was wrong.  
  
"Brock, you ok?"  
  
"Yeah, it's just I feel weird."  
  
"Oh, I'm sure it's...." 


	3. A Night The World Changed

An explosion went off into Colby's ear. At that, he grabbed his coat and ran out the door. From his porch he could see the fireball shooting into the sky. All he knew was to run towards it at full force. Once he got within a block of the fire he started to shout.  
  
"Brock! Zoe! Hey guys!"  
  
Once he was in viewing distance, he saw that there was no chance that either of them was alive. Both buildings were now just burning rubble. He just dropped into the snow and began to cry.  
  
It seemed like hours before anyone approached. Suddenly he heard footsteps approaching. It was his siblings, running at full force down the street. They spotted him there, and walked over to him.  
  
"Zoe..." mumbled Hawk.  
  
"We were just coming to surprise her..." cried Mel.  
  
They couldn't bring themselves to leave. Their souls hurt too much, it was torture to try and move. But then the sounds of tires coming down the road were heard. It sounded like there was more than one vehicle, but it didn't matter. They just stood there staring at each other and crying. When the trucks finally came over the hill, it seemed like they could only move in slow motion.  
  
Eight black hummers came rolling down the street with armed men hanging out the windows. Mercilessly, they began to shoot anything that existed. The sounds of ricocheting bullets were everywhere. When the group finally started to run away, the men spotted them and shot them down. When the vehicles stopped, the pristine white snow had been stained bloody red and eight bodies lay in the street.  
  
Taze was walking back from the market, ham sandwiches in hand. She had headphones on and was perfectly happy listening to her music. She was looking forward to a night spent with her siblings and doing what they did best. She knew that Zoe would take control and it would be kind of like old times.  
  
Just and she was reminiscing, Taze was blown off of her feet by an explosion. She landed face down in the snow and the contents of the grocery bags were strewn all over the ground. When she got up it took her a minute to realize the source of the explosion. It was north, about a block. Zoe! Her mind was filled with all of the worst things. She began to run, balancing her backpack the best she could. Could it be Manticore?  
  
Her questions were soon answered. When she finally reached the alleyway two buildings down from Zoe's, she saw Colby sitting in the street crying. But then she took a few steps forward and saw the rest of her siblings sitting with him. She began to run to them when she saw the hummers coming up the road. She could have yelled, but her throat went dry. Men popped out of the windows in the trucks and they pulled out their guns. Suddenly shots rang out. Taze ran behind the nearest shelter: a green dumpster. She sat there her hands over her ears trying to block out the screaming and moaning coming from the street. Suddenly all of the gunshots stopped. Then she knew for a fact that she was the last X6. After all of the voices stopped and the trucks left again she knew that she had to run. Once Manticore found out that a body was missing they would be on the hunt for her. At that she got up and bolted away.  
  
"Yes, sir. All of the remaining X-6's have been terminated....No, sir the hack did not go down, and there were no survivors." A man was dressed in black, and talking into a radio. "Yes, sir, well return to the base with the bodies ASAP."  
  
********  
  
Renfro put down the radio, grinning to herself. She leaned back in her chair. Finally the errors of Hatfield, the director at the Michigan base, had been corrected. Jade had been killed in the escape; Ryen had been tracked to Wisconsin. The rest had "conveniently" died in an explosion while hanging out at Zoe's apartment. Her grin turned into a smile as she recalled their names. Hatfield had gone against the committee's orders when he didn't destroy the X6's; he rather sacrificed them for experimentation and practice drills. They were so terrified that they managed to escape. Since then, Renfro had their names locked into her head. Jade, Roz, Ryen, Zoe, Tenna, Mel, Luna Ressa, Hawk, Kirk, Colby, Taze, Brock. They even had priority over the '09 rouge X5's. Finally they had been found. Finally their focus could go back on the X5's. 


End file.
